In today’s modern society many people have become interested
in the spiritual world. They want to know how they can get in contact with the
spiritual world and also about the powers that are available. If you do not
approach the spiritual world from a Biblical point of view, it can become very
dangerous. If you enter this world without the protection of God and The Holy
Spirit, you can open yourself up to influences from evil spirits. If you play
with fire, you WILL get burned.
Now the question is must Christians get involved in the
spiritual world? The answer is yes if they want to live in victory. The
spiritual realm has a huge influence in our lives, just like our lives can have
an influence in the spiritual realm.
Ephesians 6:12 For we are not
wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but
against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are]
the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of
wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
The influence of a Christian gets determined by his status
in the spiritual world and not his status in the natural world.
The Bible is the most reliable source when it comes to
information re the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm is a world in another
dimension. It is here, there and everywhere. In 2 Kings 6 Elisha was allowed to
look at the two worlds for a second. In Job we see how the spiritual world
influences the natural world. In Job Satan challenges God to prove that Job
loved God for who he was and not for what He gave Job. Job in the natural world
knew nothing of what was happening in the spiritual world and why his life on
earth became intolerable for a while. Job is a perfect example of how God gets
blamed for things that happen on earth because of workings in the spiritual
realm. It wasn’t God that made all the things happen to Job. It was Satan’s
doing, but God allowed it to happen. Notice that through it all, God was always in control.
John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have{and} enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)
The spiritual realm starts with God who created everything
and everyone. Col 1:16 For it was in Him that all
things were created, in heaven and on earth….. all things were created {and}
exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in {and} for Him.
God is Spirit and He is the only Spirit that is omnipresent,
so He cannot be compared with any other spirit in the spiritual realm. Because
God is a Spirit we cannot communicate with Him through human methods. The
spiritual realm is closed for human beings. What we know of it, we will only
know if it is shown to us. Of a person’s spirit you will only know that which
the spirit will show you. Therefore all knowledge of the spiritual realm is
knowledge shown to us by God or other spirits. In Jesus, God made Himself a
physical entity that can be seen and touched. Through Jesus, God gave us
knowledge of Himself. Because we are also in part spirit, it is possible to
meet and personally get to know God, but for that we need the Holy Spirit to
renew our spirits. With the fall, our spirits died and when you repent your
sins and accept Jesus as your personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit comes and renews
your spirit. The closer we come to God the more He will reveal of the spiritual
realm through the Holy Spirit. In the same way Satan will also reveal the
spiritual realm to the unbeliever, with fatal results for such a person.
When a person gets reborn, the spirit of God comes to live
inside that person through the Holy Spirit. Any person that has experience the
power of the Holy Spirit in their life, will know how precious this kind of
meeting with God is. On 4 occasions God has shown Himself to me in a very
powerful way and it changed my life forever. No other experience will ever be
more precious than experiencing God’s presence like I did that day and I will
never ever again doubt in the fact that I believe in a powerful living God.
Who lives in the
spiritual realm?
Angels:
Angels were created by God before God created the universe. They
are without sin and have been created to glorify God. The word angel means
“messenger”. Angels are serving spirits, in other words they don’t have a
physical body. Just because they don’t have a body, it does not mean that they
don’t have a specific form, appearance and personality. Because they are
spirits they do not adhere to the laws of the physical dimension. They are more
powerful and intelligent than human beings. They do have the ability to appear
in the natural world in a form that can be seen by human beings.
God created angels as individual beings. They are without
gender, which means they do not procreate like human beings. Their numbers
therefore stays the same as the day they were created. Although they are
without gender it is known that fallen angels are often obsessed with the
sexual. Angels, just like human beings also have a free will.
Hierarchy of
angels:
The Angel of the Lord
– this angel was actively involved with the Israelites in the Old Testament. In
the New Testament we get to know Him as Jesus Christ.
The Arch Angel -
The prefix “arch” means head or leader. The Bible calls only one angel by this
name, namely Migael, whose name means “who is equal to or like God”. It looks
like Migael is the leader of the angels of God.
In Daniel 10 it seems that the different nations has in the
spiritual realm their own princes, angel or evil spirit, that determines and
controls the course of that nation’s existence from behind the scenes.
Gabriel or “man of God” – a messenger from God. It is also Gabriel
that announces the birth of Jesus.
Cherubim – It is
unknown what the word really means, but it seems that they are in God’s company
a lot. They were the angels that protected The Garden of Eden and the entrance
to the Tree of Life after the fall. It seems that they are stationed around the
throne of God, where they protect the glory and thrown of God. In Ezekiel
28:14,16 it seems that Lucifer was such an angel.
Seraphim- their
name comes from a word that means burning. They work in conjunction with the
cherubim.
Normal angels –
they do different things in service of God.
It is important to realise that God values human beings as
more important than angels and that there is no jealousy because of this
Father-child relationship that God has with human beings. There is nothing more
precious to God than the love and worship of His earthly children. Angels were
created for and to glorify God. To glorify God, is the highest service a human
being or an angel can be busy with. Angels were created to serve. God meant for
the human being to rule on earth.
Right through the Bible angels were messengers, until after
the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. After this the Holy Spirit seems to
have taken over from the angels. Because the Holy Spirit stays in us, God is in
direct contact with us. That does not mean that God does not still use angels,
especially to communicate with unsaved people, who do not have the Holy Spirit
in them. The Holy Spirit communicates directly with the spirit of a human
being, so we do not become aware of Him through our senses like it can be the
case with angels.
It is important to know that in the last days the angels
will start to play a more dominant role again. Angels until then will help
protect the human beings. It is important to know that only God can give an
angel an order. It also seems that at the death of a believer angels guide you
through to the other side. Every time a believer dies, the angels rejoice, for
another soul made it to heaven.
For the unbeliever another type of welcome awaits one from
the angel of death. This is another example of how God can and will use even
evil spirits to do what He want. This angel will gather the souls of
unbelievers. This is another example of God’s all mighty power in the spiritual
realm.
Who is Satan?
In Ezekiel 28:14-16 it seems that Satan was a very important
cherubim. He was probably the most
important cherubim. According to the Bible he was probably the most perfect of
all angels. In Isaiah 14:12 he is called the light bringer and daystar, son of the morning. Pride and greed was
probably Lucifer’s downfall. He chose not to serve God anymore. He wanted to
rule himself. In Gen 3:15 God makes the so called “promise of the seed”. After
this the story unfolds of Satan doing everything in his power to stop the
coming of the Messiah. Right through the OT the story unfolds of Satan trying
to stop the messianic line from which the Messiah would come and how God
stopped Him from succeeding. In the NT he tries to stop the birth of Jesus in
several ways and when he couldn’t succeed he tried to stop the death of Jesus
on the cross. Deut 21:23, Gal 3:13 it says that Cursed is everyone who hangs
from a tree. By dying on the cross Jesus became the curse Himself and made it
possible for us to gain eternal life.
Names of Satan:
Satan – means
accuser
Devil – means
accuser, slanderer. It refers to his work on earth.
Snake – probably
because this was the form in which he first tempted the human
Lucifer – star of
the morning and son of the dawn. This is in reference to his position before
his fall.
Beelzebul – god
of flies
Belial – means
worthless men or lacking worth. It refers to the presence of evil.
The forces of Satan are called demons. According to the
Bible there are two groups of demons. There are one group that roams free with
Satan and another group that is prisoners in the bottomless pit (Abyss). Luke
8:31, Revelation 9:1-2, 11, 17:8, 20:1,3 It seems that these fallen angels
possibly were the angels that committed sexual acts with the women of the
world. (Jude 1:6,7)
Just like angels demons also have personalities, but they
are evil. Demons have a desire to be in a physical body, probably due to the
fact that they are very restless and being in a body calms them and also
because they have much more influence on the life of a person if they can
control his body, will and mind. Fallen angels can never be saved again. They
are without hope, future and mercy; they are desperate and merciless in their
hate towards human beings. Some demons specialise in a specific area of evil
eg. Spirits of the lies, ectr.
Satan’s forces also have a hierarchy namely Satan, rulers
and principalities, authorities, powers of the world and evil spirits. Although
Satan is a fallen angel, he still has a lot of power on earth. It is however
important to always remember that God is Almighty and that God only tolerates Satan because Satan also have
a role to play in God’s plan. Be careful not to give Satan more credit than is
due but also not to give him too little credit. Our authority over Satan depends directly on the presence of God in our
lives. Through God we can do anything. On our own we are but a sinking ship
in the storm Satan causes in our lives. Satan cannot create anything he can
only destroy what God has created. God does not need to become involve in a
fight with Satan. Satan has already been defeated when he was banned from the
glory of God. Jesus died not to overcome
Satan, but to make it possible for me and you to be saved, to have eternal
life, to live in victory. In James 4:7 we are given the reassurance that if we resist
the devil in the name of Jesus Christ, he will flee from us.
Yes there is a war going on in the spiritual realm, but
because Satan has already been defeated, we as Christians do not have to fear
the power of Satan. Must we know the works of Satan? Yes definitely, but we
never have to fear him. Satan cannot do anything to God and because of that he
will try and destroy that which God created. When God created us, he gave the
authority over the earth to Adam and with the fall Adam gave that authority to
Satan. Everything God created has been influenced by the fall. Satan even has
power over nature, but God still determines the boundaries of that power. So
often God is blamed for disasters, but the Bible makes it very clear that God
is the source of everything good. (John 10:10 en James 1:17). God can however
take the ugly that Satan causes in our lives and turn it into something good
and beautiful.
Trials vs
Temptations:
God gives us trials to test our faith, Satan tempts us. It
is important to avoid temptations as much as possible. A temptation only becomes sin when you give in
to it, therefore we must avoid temptations and even flee from it. If we cannot
avoid it, we MUST resist it. 1 Tim 6:10-11, 2 Tim 2:22
It is not okay to use the excuse that we are only human to
justify giving in to temptation, in any case not if you are a Christian. God
gave you a free will and you have to take responsibility for the choices you
make. As a Christian you can say NO. Ephesians 6:12 For
we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical
opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master
spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit
forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Satan knows your weakness and he will use it
to tempt you. Every person has basic cravings or needs, but God provided us
with basic principles wherein these needs can be satisfied. Our needs are also
always subject to God’s word and will. Unfortunately our needs and our will have
become more important than God’s will. Your needs eventually becomes your god. You
cannot disobey the principles of the Bible and expect not to bare the fruits of
that disobedience. Satan is a hard and cruel boss to work for.
What is the difference between a trial and a temptation? Temptation
will always lead to sin. Trial is
something that comes from God and if you walk through it with the right
attitude, you will come out a better person on the other side.
When Satan tempt you he does not only want you to sin, but
he wants to bind you. When I go against God’s word and will I give Satan the
legal right to work in my life and I deprive myself of the Lord’s protection.
Christians can live in bondage, depriving themselves of living in victory. You
become a slave of whatever it is that Satan holds over you.
Sin starts with a temptation, temptation implies a choice. The
day you no longer have a choice over whether you want to sin or not, you
probably are in bondage to Satan.
How do you get rid
of a bondage?
1.
Fasting and prayer2. Traumatic event can also lead to deliverance
3. Deliverance
Remember a child of God cannot be demon possessed. Your soul
already belongs to God.
Demon possession – when a person’s life gets taken over by a
demon/demons to such an extent that that person is not in control any more. When a person is being possessed by a demon,
that person can have supernatural powers. When demons get in contact with the
power of Jesus Christ they often will manifest in some way. They will normally
try and talk to you, but you do not have to get involve in a conversation with
them. Just rebuke them in the name of Jesus Christ. Remember not all people with problems are
demon possessed. You have to always let the Holy Spirit guide you.
If you want to deliver someone from an evil spirit, you need
the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to know God and be filled with the Holy
Spirit. The more God is in control in your life, the more control you will have
over demons in your life. Demons enter your life because of sins you commit or
committed. You have to repent those sins before you can get rid of those demons
in your life.
It is important to remember that you do not have to live in
bondage. If you feel there are certain areas in your life where you are in
bondage, go speak to someone at your church. Also make sure that you speak to
people that really have a relationship with God. Not all people claiming to be
able to deliver you, has the Holy Spirit in them.
